ENSURE AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE

When more people have health insurance that allows them to receive regular medical care, America is a safer, healthier country. More people now have health insurance, thanks to the federal marketplace that was created in 2010. For millions of people using that marketplace, Congress recently expanded insurance subsidies to help pay for care. With that relief, millions of Americans have signed up for coverage -- but sadly, those subsidies are set to expire next year.

New Jersey is lucky to have U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer in Congress, a reliable champion for health care. Today, as challenges mount, New Jerseyans are counting on Gottheimer to continue his strong record and fight to make insurance subsidies permanent, because they have made coverage accessible and affordable for millions across the country.

I'm calling on Gottheimer to stand up for his voters once again by ensuring that health insurance subsidies are made permanent

Sara Sooy

Somerville

The writer is director of the Somerset County Board of Commissioners.

Assaults on our democracy

The white nationalist group the Patriot Front marched to the Lincoln Memorial days after GOP representatives in Tallahassee made Orwellian pleas to ban free speech in Florida schools and on college campuses, demanding that "offensive" books and words like "critical" and "race/racial" be expunged from curriculum discussion.

The Patriot Front marched wearing hoods to hide their faces while the GOP representatives assaulted free speech in bold-faced shame, empowered by the Big Lie and the demonization of the Democratic Party. Nazi propagandist minister Joseph Goebbels said it best: "Make the lie big, very big, repeat it often and people will believe." He understood the frailty of human nature -- to demonize others and satiate a base with simple solutions to complex problems, to galvanize the disenfranchised to be complicit and do the unthinkable.

If we allow our freedoms and pursuit of the truth to be hijacked by those who fear words or ideas, then our democracy is doomed. We are doomed. Today we are still enough of a democracy that white supremacists can march on American streets with impunity; paradoxically Republican leaders, who represent the party of law and order, have a far greater fear of academic institutions and the professors who exercise their constitutional right of free speech than they do of the Jan. 6 assault on our democracy or the abridgment of any civil and voting rights. Apparently, controlling and manipulating the narrative is the war they have chosen to fight rather than the preservation of our democratic principles.

Stephen Talercio

Mahwah

Afghanistan withdrawal was smart

Regarding "Biden gets failing grades this semester" (Letters to the Editor, Dec. 7):

Pulling out of Afghanistan was a smart move. Remember our fiasco in Vietnam? Leaving some high-tech equipment behind was a harmless and practical move.

As a CEO, the letter writer should appreciate long-term, forward-looking practices.

Ralph Pincus

Paramus